


Captainly Duties

by todxrxki



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Kenma POV, M/M, Second Year Haiba Lev, Third Year Kozume Kenma, captain kenma, kenma is suffering, minor kuroken but a decent amount of it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:21:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25410802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/todxrxki/pseuds/todxrxki
Summary: Over the past few weeks, Lev has come to Kenma for a variety of different issues, including a scraped knee, a problem with getting his hair to stay in place, a lost kneepad, and a sick kitten. Kenma has explained to him at least ten times that it is not the job of his volleyball team’s captain to solve these problems for him. However, Lev does not seem to have listened even once.“Well, not really,” Lev hedges, and Kenma resists the urge to flatout facepalm. “But! It has to do with someone that’s on the team! Does that count?” / In which Lev comes to his captain for advice about his love life and Kenma suffers. A lot.
Relationships: Haiba Lev/Shibayama Yuuki, Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 161





	Captainly Duties

“Kenma-senpai!”

“Lev,” Kenma says with a sigh, turning to face his underclassman. “I’ve told you a hundred times to stop with the senpai thing.”

“Sorry! Kenma-san! I have a question for you, since you’re the captain and all.”

“Does it actually have to do with volleyball this time?” Over the past few weeks, Lev has come to Kenma for a variety of different issues, including a scraped knee, a problem with getting his hair to stay in place, a lost kneepad, and a sick kitten. Kenma has explained to him at least ten times that it is not the job of his volleyball team’s captain to solve these problems for him. However, Lev does not seem to have listened even once.

“Well, not really,” Lev hedges, and Kenma resists the urge to flatout facepalm. “But! It has to do with someone that’s on the team! Does that count?”

Kenma considers for a moment. On one hand, it’s not really his place to solve the personal problems of his team members, but on the other hand, he doesn’t want to deal with the fallout and the awkwardness if it  _ doesn’t  _ get solved. So he sighs. “Fine, Lev. What’s the question?”

“The question is…” Lev hesitates, scratching the back of his neck, and he looks like a child in all of his innocence as he says, “Well, how do you know if you like somebody?”

“Why are you asking  _ me  _ this?” Kenma asks. “Go ask Yamamoto. He likes people all the damn time.”

“I did already,” Lev wails, “and he started talking about all this stuff that’s only about girls, y’know, like their hair and their body parts and stuff! But the person I like isn’t a girl!”

_ Ah.  _ Leave it to Yamamoto to give the least helpful advice ever. Kenma evaluates his options: he can leave Lev hanging, which would probably result in a lot of whining and even more trouble. Or he can answer the incredibly embarrassing question, but save himself the trouble later. 

He decides on the latter. But first… “Who the hell is it?” Internally, he goes through the list in his head: It’s clearly not Yamamoto, and he hasn’t seen Fukunaga and Lev interact enough for even Lev to be able to develop a crush on him. The first years either idol-worship him or ignore him, which leaves Inuoka, Teshiro, and Shibayama. And of the three, the one that Lev spends the most time revolving himself around is…. “Shibayama?”

“Wow, Kenma-san, you really are observant,” Lev says. “But yeah! It’s Shibayama! He’s just so cute, and he’s so determined, and he listens to me even when I’m talking about pretty much  _ nothing _ \- “

Kenma has to hand it to Shibayama there. He’s already starting to zone out. “I see,” Kenma says measuredly. “It sure sounds like you like him. But when you like someone, you want to spend all your time with them, and talking to them makes you happy. Stuff like that.”

Lev grins, and Kenma hates it. “So like you and Kuroo-san?”

“Me and - what? No,” Kenma says, because Lev shouldn’t be perceptive enough to be able to pick up on  _ that.  _ “What are you going to do about it?”

“I guess I’m going to tell him,” Lev says, because Lev seriously knows no fear, what the hell. It’s kind of admirable in a weird way. “What should I say, though? Should I say that the stars are pretty tonight, but not as beautiful as his eyes? That’s what they always say in movies, right?”

“No,” Kenma says. “I cannot emphasize enough how much you should not do that. Why don’t you just tell him what you told me about how he’s cute and determined? The things you like about him, I mean.”

“Huh,” Lev says. “I guess I could do that.”

“You guess - just do it,” Kenma says, trying not to sound like he’s going to explode, although he feels like he is. All of a sudden he hates his own curiosity and the fact that he cares about Lev enough to be invested in his love life, because what he says next is, “And… let me know how it goes. I’ll be cheering for you.”

“Thanks, Kenma-san. I knew I could count on you,” Lev says, beaming at him that’s almost cute in the way a cute puppy would be. Kenma groans and hopes that Shibayama will think the same thing.

.

Lev wastes absolutely no time. Kenma thinks that he probably shouldn’t be shocked - it’s the headstrong way Lev crashes into everything, the very same attitude that got him in trouble with Yaku hundreds of times. It’d be admirable, Kenma thinks, if it weren’t so terrifying. The very next day after practice, Lev says loudly, “Hey, Yuuki, wanna walk home together?”

_ When had they gotten on a first-name basis?  _ Kenma’s a little in awe of how smooth Lev is. Shibayama glances up at Lev, then gives a slow nod. “Yeah, I mean, don’t we always?”

“Right,” Lev says. He glances down awkwardly, and Kenma glares at him.  _ Come on, Lev - even you have to have more game than  _ this. 

Well, not that Kuroo had been much better when they’d first gotten together. But he, at least, had never been weird about it. Still, it’s kind of sweet - an indicator of how much Lev seems to genuinely like Shibayama. What does Lev act like when he likes someone, though, anyways? Is he always this awkward? And how the hell is this confession thing going to go?

Kenma’s curiosity gets the best of him. He decides to follow the two home. He chalks it up to just another responsibility of the team captain - monitoring his kouhai’s relationships to make sure they can still play together on the court. 

Shibayama and Lev walk for a little bit in relative silence, which Kenma thinks is shocking given that it’s  _ Lev,  _ who can never shut up under any other circumstances. And then, taking a deep breath, Lev says, “Hey, I have something to ask you.”

“Oh?” Shibayama says. “Well, go ahead and ask me. I’m kind of an open book.”

“I…” Lev says, but then weirdly enough he doesn’t say it. Instead, he clears his throat and says, “Uh, what’s your favorite fruit?”

“My favorite… fruit,” Shibayama repeats, confused, and Kenma resists the urge to jump in and kick Lev’s ass in typical Yaku style. “Uh, I really like strawberries?”

“Oh, me too!” Lev chirps. “But, uh, that wasn’t the question. Or I guess it might not even be a question at all. It’s just that I…” He trails off, and Kenma holds his breath. “This was supposed to be so easy! I was just supposed to come out and say it! But the problem is that every time I look at you, I forget all about what I was going to say and it’s not fair!” 

Kenma nearly drops his phone. Holy shit, who knew Lev could be so smooth - without even meaning to be? He takes a mental note of this to tell Kuroo about later. He knows Kuroo will be appreciative of Lev’s game.

“You… you what?” Shibayama asks, stopping in his tracks to look at Lev. Kenma does the same, darting behind a nearby hedge so that he won’t be spotted. Shibayama continues, “What do you mean?”

“I want to tell you how much I like you,” Lev says, his words spewing out all at once. “I want to tell you that I think you’re the cutest person I’ve ever seen, and that I admire your determination, and that I think you’re gonna do amazing things, and that I like when you listen to me, even though I’m not really talking about anything, and that your smile is one of the best things on the planet, probably, but I don’t know  _ how  _ to tell you that!” 

Shibayama stands, completely still, for a moment, and Kenma holds his breath. He’s not sure when exactly he’d gotten so invested in  _ Lev’s  _ relationship of all people, but he can’t help wanting the best for the big, sincere boy. It’s ridiculous. And then, finally, Shibayama says, “I think you just did” with what sounds like a quiet laugh.

“Huh,” Lev says, wonder in his tone. “I guess I did, didn’t I? Well, what’s your answer then, Yuuki? Come on! I feel like I’m about to die over here.”

“Maybe I should leave you in suspense just a minute longer.” 

“Come on! You wouldn’t be that cruel, would you?” Lev whines, and for once Kenma finds himself agreeing with Lev. 

“Of course I like you too,” Shibayama says, reaching out and slipping his hand into Lev’s - which, wow, Kenma hadn’t known that Shibayama could be that smooth either. “And I like listening to you, even when you don’t talk about anything. It’s kind of… nice. Soothing.”

_ Who the hell thinks that Lev’s voice is  _ soothing? Kenma thinks with no small degree of disgust, and almost starts to rethink his high opinion of Shibayama. 

“You really do?” Lev says, staring down at Shibayama, and then, “Shit, I wanna kiss you, but I don’t know how!”

_ He doesn’t know how to kiss.  _ Kenma nearly hits his head against the bush in front of him. 

“You don’t know how to kiss?” Shibayama asks.

“Well, it’s just that you’re so small,” Lev says, and Kenma actually does hit his head against the bush. It kind of stings. “I mean, not that that’s a bad thing! But do I lean down, or do you lean up, or…”

Shibayama gives a tiny, adorable chuckle before he takes ahold of Lev’s jersey, tugging him down to Shibayama’s level so that he’s half bent-over. “I think this’ll do,” he says jovially, a twinkle in his eyes as he tugs Lev down to press a kiss to Lev’s lips. Kenma sees the way that Lev’s eyes widen, the red spreading over his cheeks, and can’t help but find it disgusting. But yet, in a way…

He also finds it a little bit sweet.

The sound of jovial chatter erupts again as the two of them part, mostly Lev chattering about how he has a  _ boyfriend  _ now, quite possibly the best boyfriend in the entire world - and the cutest. Well, at least it hadn’t ended in disaster, Kenma thinks to himself. It could have gone a lot worse. But he’s happy for them, in some odd way. Even though he wishes Lev wouldn’t have involved him in the first place. 

Underclassmen are so much trouble.

It makes him think of his own big, dumb boyfriend though. He pulls his phone out of his pocket, firing off a quick text:  _ miss you. _

The response comes too quickly for Kenma’s comfort.  _ Is this the almighty Kozume Kenma deigning to text me first for once in his life?!  _ is Kuroo’s message.  _ And saying such sweet words? I think I might just die on the spot.  _

_ shut up,  _ Kenma sends back, and Kuroo’s response is short:  _ I miss you too. So much. Anyways, you gotta tell me about whatever’s going on there that’s got you so desperate as to be texting me later today… _

Kenma rolls his eyes as he keeps reading, but there’s a little smile on his lips anyways. It seems that Lev isn’t the only one who’s got a huge soft spot.

Not that he’d ever admit that to anyone, though. He shakes his head, turns on his heel, and walks away, leaving the two lovebirds to their own devices. 

It’d turned out better than he’d expected, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome home Nation!! We love you lots, and I hope you enjoy my attempt at ShibaLev!! I'm so glad you're back and hope this can show how much we appreciate you!!  
> This is definitely inspired by Luna's lovely Shibalev thread, which you can find here: https://twitter.com/LunaMoon_28/status/1278905607521734656 I tried to bring my own twist to this scenario (and I apologize in advance for the Kuroken and the captain Kenma agenda but I can't help myself).


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